Last week I had the crew needle tine the greens. This procedure opens up the soil to let it breath a bit, but also softens the surface a little bit too. A little softer is good, balls making creators in the greens is bad! If you read the USGA report I posted last week you learned that a gentle needle tining is a good thing, for both play and agronomics. The trick is to balance the process with everything else that we have to do to the greens to avoid tire ruts from the heavy equipment that gets driven across the putting surface.
On the water front, to help combat the localized dry spots popping up here and there we have instituted a wetting agent program to get water to penetrate downward through the dry soils. The term "wetting agent" is just a fancy way of saying we added a chemistry to the soil that breaks the surface tension of water. Those who have spent time down here in the hot & dry season know that once our soils dry out they are actually very difficult to re-wet. This condition is called hydrophobic (water repelling). I won't bore you with the science behind it, but just know that just because you turn on the sprinklers, it doens' mean that the water is going where you want it to. Due to the surface tension of water, when applied it could actually just sit there on the surface and not go down the way you think it should. Watch this short 20 second video on the affect of adding a wetting agent to the soil to see what I'm talking about. Notice how the untreated water just sits on the surface of the sand.
Wetting Agent Video
If that sand happens to be on a slope then the water just runs off without going into the soil at all. This is a classic example of what happens on a golf course in the Spring before the rains come. Now add in the extra pressure of water restrictions and /or your supply of available water being cut back like what we are going through and you have some real trying times! The good news is that once the rainy season comes around a lot of these localized dry spots will go away on their own. Until then, at least we have a plan in place to manage the hydrophobic (water repelling) conditions.
If you look close in this picture you can see some darker areas and some lighter areas. The darker area is where I applied the wetting agent and the lighter areas are where I did not. The reason for the difference in color on this very humid day is the freshly sprayed wetting agent doesn't allow the dew form a droplet on the waxy leaf tissue of the grass. Remember, the wetting agent breaks the surface tension of the water, thus allowing the dew to simply slide down the leaf blade into the soil instead of sticking to the leaf. The dew suppression will wear off as the grass is mowed, but the soil activity of the wetting agent will remain for about 3 weeks.
Part of my routine quarterly maintenance is to do some soil sampling and have it any analyzed by a certified lab. Much like the water put down on the ground, we need to make sure we are efficiently using what we nutrients we apply and that soil chemistry stays balanced. Just because a nutrient is applied doesn't mean it is actually being used. The report will come back stating what nutrients are in the soil, but it will also tell me what nutrients are plant available and there is a big difference. The sample results will let me know if thre are any deficencies, imbalances, or surpluses that need to be unlocked. Soil chemistry is very complicated, usually when you try to correct for one thing it screws up another. Here one of my main fertilizer vendors is working with me to collect the samples randomly on #4 green.
When the samples are taken it gives me a chance to check the root system of the greens...if you have good roots then you typically have good grass. Notice the thick white root sticking up, that's a good sign of a healthly plant.
Here's a really good one, roots 4" deep on a grass mowed at less than 1/8"
Something new this Spring that we have not had to deal with in a while is the occurrence of a disease on the greens called fairy ring. These rings are caused by a fungus that feeds on decaying organic material in the thatch layer. The fungal mycelium creates a hydrophobic layer in the soil profile and that is what causes the discoloration of the grass. Notice how the fungus spreads in a circular pattern, hence the name fairy ring.
As greens age, it is a normal to start experiencing this issue. We always treat the problem immediately when we find a disease on the greens! The discoloration should go away in a few days.
Just a reminder for those interested, please click on the "USGA Weekly Green Section posting" link on the left side of the page to see what is happening around the country in golf. This week there is a great article written by a former USGA past president that was first published in 1960 regarding making the game easier. Also, there is a good article on green's height of cut you might want to check out.
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